Entertainment
45+ Years Later, One of the Greatest War Movies Ever Is Being Rewritten as a Streaming Hit on April 1
Cinema has never been afraid to tackle the biggest and most contentious events in the world. This is no better illustrated than in the war genre, and there is perhaps no conflict more associated with cinema than Vietnam. From a superb Tom Cruise performance in Born on the Fourth of July and the six Academy Award wins of Forrest Gump to a 31-year-old Willem Dafoe‘s Platoon and the star-studded The Deer Hunter, some of the greatest movies of all time are set against the volatile backdrop of the Vietnam War.
The very best Vietnam War movie, and possibly the greatest war movie of all time, is Apocalypse Now, the genius Francis Ford Coppola effort loosely inspired by a 1899 novella. Nominated for eight Academy Awards, including nods in the Best Picture and Best Director categories, the film walked away from the 52nd ceremony with two Golden Statues, winning for Best Cinematography and Best Sound. However, Apocalypse Now‘s greatest achievement was at the Cannes Film Festival, where it became Coppola’s second movie to win the coveted Palme d’Or, five years after he triumphed for The Conversation.
Adored by critics, Apocalypse Now boasts a “certified fresh” 91% score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, with audiences awarding a 94% rating. The critics’ consensus on the site reads, “A voyage to hell where the journey is more satisfying than the destination, Francis Ford Coppola’s haunting, hallucinatory Vietnam War epic is cinema at its most audacious and visionary.” In his 4/4 review at the time, the acclaimed critic Roger Ebert wrote:
“Remember the weird beauty of the massed helicopters lifting over the trees in the long shot, and the insane power of Wagner’s music, played loudly during the attack, and you feel what Coppola was getting at: Those moments as common in life as art, when the whole huge grand mystery of the world, so terrible, so beautiful, seems to hang in the balance.”
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‘Apocalypse Now’ Is Coming to a New Streamer
As of April 1, Apocalypse Now will be officially available to stream on Plex. You’ll be able to catch the likes of Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, and more for free in the U.S. as they tackle a terrifying conflict and the hells of war. A synopsis for the film reads:
“In Vietnam in 1970, Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) takes a perilous and increasingly hallucinatory journey upriver to find and terminate Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando), a once-promising officer who has reportedly gone completely mad. In the company of a Navy patrol boat filled with street-smart kids, a surfing-obsessed Air Cavalry officer (Robert Duvall), and a crazed freelance photographer (Dennis Hopper), Willard travels further and further into the heart of darkness.”
Apocalypse Now will be available to stream on Plex this April. Stay tuned to Collider for more streaming stories.
- Release Date
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August 15, 1979
- Runtime
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147 minutes
- Director
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Francis Ford Coppola
- Writers
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Joseph Conrad, John Milius, Francis Ford Coppola, Michael Herr
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